Prior art oil field pipe handling systems and methods are well known for lifting and lowering drill pipe and casing to and from pipe racks, to and from the catwalk, and then onto the rig floor, and/or for stacking the pipe at other locations adjacent to or separated from the rig floor. However, the prior art systems have problems relating to damage of the tubulars during this process. Moreover, prior art systems are limited in their adaptability to the path of transportation typically to and from each particular rig floor, catwalk, and pipe rack arrangement.
Numerous U.S. Patents show various attempts to provide suitable devices, methods, and machines for handling drilling tubulars of various types and under various work situations and for various work environments. However, the prior art does not provide a suitable means for moving pipes whereby they arrive at the rig floor virtually without experiencing sharp lateral impacts and/or friction damage to sensitive areas such as threads. For instance, heavy tubulars such as casing, due to their very great weight and large diameter may be easily damaged by lateral impacts and/or even by impacts to thread protectors during movement from the pipe rack, to the cat walk, and then to the drill floor. The transportation from a pipe rack to the rig floor often involves an irregular and difficult path for moving heavy items. Moreover, this pathway will often vary depending on the particulars of construction for each drilling, workover, offshore, and/or onshore rig.
It would be desirable to provide a machine which will handle all types of pipes and which adapt to the many different transportation pathways, for transporting tubulars from pipe racks to the rig floor without damage even to extremely heavy, large, tubulars and/or to other tubulars prone to damage due to sharp lateral impacts or impacts to the sensitive threaded ends thereof.
Consequently, those of skill in the art will appreciate the present invention which addresses the above and other problems.